Marty & QBs

For some people – mostly fans and media pundits — the term “Marty Ball” has become synonymous with the idea of being conservative, three yards and a cloud of dust on offense and defenses that are asked to do too much.

Mention “Marty Ball” to somebody in the game, like Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards and it conjures up different impression: victories.

“All he did was win and kept going to the playoffs,” Edwards said when asked what Marty Ball means to him.

Marty Schottenheimer shows up at Arrowhead Stadium this Sunday with a 4-1 San Diego team that may be the most balanced club in the league. They are good on offense, they are good on defense and they have two very good kickers. If he had a return man like Dante Hall, the Chargers would be scary good.

Now remember this: the Chargers are getting this done with a quarterback who has started just five NFL games. Philip Rivers barely threw the ball in the season opener at Oakland. The Chargers won easily. Since then, he’s been given more and more opportunities to throw and he’s been very successful: 68.8 completion percentage, 7.4 yards per attempt, seven touchdown passes, two interceptions and a passer rating of 100.6.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Not because Rivers was a first-round pick and is loaded with plenty of physical abilities, but because of Martin Edward Schottenheimer, that stubborn German.

You see, part of “Marty Ball” that people never want to give Schottenheimer credit for is how he handles quarterbacks. Over his career, he’s never been given a lot of great talents when it comes to the guy who puts his hands under center. But his teams always got far more out of the quarterback position than anyone would have expected.

Examples? Chiefs fans should be able to name two immediately: a couple of Steves, DeBerg and Bono. Chargers fans saw it happen with Drew Brees and now with Rivers.

What does Marty do? It’s very simple: he manages his quarterback. He preaches and preaches in his ear about not turning the ball over, about not throwing it up for grabs, about not taking chances. If you’ve got Joe Montana – as Marty did for two years with the Chiefs – you don’t worry so much about the quarterback taking chances. If you’ve got a guy who has never done it before, you keep a governor on him. If you’ve got a guy who has proven in the past that he’ll throw it up for grabs and make bad decisions, you ride herd on him. The game is not put in the passer’s hands.

Let’s break down each of these situations.

DEBERG: What the Chiefs got out of DeBerg during the 1990 season was simply remarkable. Over his career, he was a mistake-prone passer who had been found wanting in San Francisco, Denver and Tampa Bay. Before that ‘90 season, he never had a passer rating higher than 85.3.

But in that first of seven seasons where the Schottenheimer Chiefs made the playoffs, they were 11-5 and DeBerg finished with a passer rating of 96.3. In 16 starts, he threw 444 passes and only four were interceptions. He threw 23 touchdown passes. This came after the 1989 season when he threw 16 interceptions in 12 games and was benched several times; remember he earned the nickname “Freddie Krueger” because he kept popping back up in the starting lineup. He got the chance again in 1990 because he finally figured out what Schottenheimer was preaching: ball security.

BONO: A career backup in his time in the league, previously with Minnesota, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, Bono got his first starting chance in the 1995 season with the Chiefs. He was replacing the legend, as Montana retired after two seasons with the team.

Bono knew the San Francisco-style offense, but he was limited in his physical abilities. But that didn’t slow down the ‘95 Chiefs. They went 13-3, won the division and Bono finished with a 79.5 passer rating with 21 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. It was the highlight of his rather non-descript career. That next season, he faded back into obscurity.

BREES: In his first two seasons as the starting quarterback for the Chargers, Brees opened 27 games, throwing 28 touchdown passes and 31 interceptions. That produced passer ratings of 76.9 (2002) and 67.5 (2003). There were real questions about Brees and whether he had been worth a high second-round choice in the 2001 NFL Draft.

But in his third season under Schottenheimer, Brees finally figured out how to please his head coach: he stopped turning the ball over. In the 2004 season where the Chargers finished 12-4 and won the AFC West, Brees was sensational. He threw 27 TD passes, and just seven interceptions, while completing 65.5 percent of his passes. His passer rating finished at 104.8.

RIVERS: In his first two seasons, Rivers played in four games, all in mop-up roles. The guy who was acquired in the trade that sent Eli Manning to the New York Giants could not get past Brees.

But when the combination of a late season shoulder injury and free agency had the Chargers walking away from Brees, it was the chance Rivers had waited for and he’s already shown he’s been listening to his head coach. Schottenheimer has limited his options and Rivers has come to understand that if he’s going to be the “man” in Marty Ball, he can’t turn it over.

When a coach has been around as long as Marty Schottenheimer, people are going to say plenty of things about you, your decisions, your style and your beliefs. One thing they can definitely say about him is that when it comes to managing quarterbacks, Schottenheimer has proven he’s one of the best in the business.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.